Bucket wheel excavators are used for
mining large volumes of soil,
coal or
ore. Most bucket wheel excavators are currently sold with
noise control in the cabs, and older units can be
retrofit with noise control as needed.
A bucket wheel's payload is dependent on many factors including bucket size, shape,
curl force and
fill factor for the material being excavated. Fill factors are determined by the bucket penetration and profile, the
breakout force, and it's
rackback angle (the rackback angle determines material retention). The material being excavated can range from 100% for sandy clay to 40% for poorly blasted rock. The demands of an excavator can vary from 5k cubic yd., to as much as 40k cubic yd. per day.
Bucket types include trenching
standard duty,
heavy duty,
road building or
pipe lining, and light material ditch cleaning. Bucket wheel excavators now carry up to 2 x 500
kW power and range in price from $30,000 to $80,000 in U.S. dollars.
Compact bucket-wheel excavators are made of ridged structure and low weight and are useful for continuous
opencast mining, in addition to working on water canal or highway digging.
To view a bucket wheel excavator see:
http://www.int-islandtrading.com/various_equipment/vue-Krupp%20C%20300%20.jpg